Creamy Quinoa Primavera

If you’ve never tried quinoa, you really should. I’m always looking for new quinoa recipes, and this is one of my favorites. Technically, quinoa is not a grain, but it does remind me of cous cous. The great thing about quinoa, as opposed to other grains, is that it’s very high in protein. It’s also gluten-free. You can use any kind of vegetables in this dish. I like onion, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots, and I’ll add peppers sometimes too. I just give all the veggies a coarse shop in my food processor, but you could even throw in a mix of frozen veggies to save time. Although I’d typically serve this as a side dish, I’ll happily eat it as a meal on it’s own.

This looks like a great combination of satisfying and healthy – will be keen to give it a go. So far, I’ve only used quinoa for porridge for breakfast, so a savory recipe will be a good way to mix things up and try something new!

I love that just a little bit of cream cheese goes a long way with quinoa. The mouth texture of quinoa is already so close to creamy that it doesn’t take much cream cheese at all. You could probably get by with half the cream cheese in this recipe, especially because the quinoa is cooked in broth.

@Nicole – the fresh vegetables I like to use in quinoa salads are sweet onions, bell pepper, grated carrots, chopped cilantro, celery.

My husband kept saying how good this was tonight. I used mascarpone instead of cream cheese because that’s what I had and only added about half of the cooked quinoa, all of it would have been way too much.

Yum!I LOVE quinoa! For a dairy free dish, simply saute the onion in coconut (or olive) oil, & drain off the liquid from a tin of coconut milk (you could add that to the cooking liquid) & use the ‘thick’ milk in place of cream cheese!

Our family is GF & DF, & we use coconut milk in place of most dairy! Had Christmas eve lasagna with a delightful tapioca cheese (my son-in law’s mom made it) There’s also rice based cheese for those who can’t do dairy, or skip the extra cheese.

I have been baking my quinoa recently – bring to a boil in recommended liquid, transfer to a baking dish & bake covered at 350* for 30 minutes, then uncover & continue baking 10 minutes. Takes a bit longer, but the quinoa is always fluffy! I often replace some of the liquid with 1/2 C pureed squash or pumpkin. mmmm

I just made this and it was very good! Thanks! My 5 yr old said he didn’t want to eat the cooked carrots and then after he tried some he said to himself, “well I liked cooked carrots, but I haven’t tried these things . . . (cauliflower haha) ” It is a good flavor blend.

Instead of the cream cheese, make yogurt cheese. Put the yogurt in a strainer lined with a coffee filter and let it sit a few hours or overnight. The longer it sits the thicker it gets. We use it in place of cream cheese or sour cream.